Abstract
PROLONGED UNDERFEEDING, whether induced intentionally, or incidentally as the result of some extraneous experiment which causes anorexia, leads to marked depression of the endocrine glands (1). It has been suggested that the term pseudo-hypophysectomy best describes the regressive changes in the endocrine organs occurring during inanition, because they resemble the changes which follow hypophysectomy (1-4). Some evidence in support of the validity of this term comes from the work of Mason and Wolfe (5) who reported that the hypophyses of underfed male rats had low gonadotropic activity. Werner (6) corroborated these findings by demonstrating a decrease in the gonadotropic hormone content of the hypophysis of the underfed female rat. More recently the pseudo-hypophysectomy syndrome was studied in the chick (7, 8) in the guinea pig (9) and in man (10). Jackson (11) reviewed the literature on the effects of inanition on the testes and accessory genitalia.
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